Le Couteau

Today the weather is too nice to be wasted in an office, so I head for Orcier. The air was crisp and very cool this morning, and the sun is shining, despite a high veil of clouds, so I expect good thermal activity. Alex joins me at the club terrain, where there are already several other pilots. Some are landing, they've flown already, others have just arrived.
We all pile up in the truck, following what is becoming a routine, and head for Le Couteau. Alex is first in the air, and I follow him closely. We first try and gain some altitude to the right of the take off, but there isn't enough activity. After a few passes, we're slightly lower than take off altitude, and it doesn't look like we're going to gain much. He decides to go to La Chapelle but I stay behind for a couple more passes. Out of the corner of my eye, I watch his progress, and see that he loses a little bit of altitude, so after a few minutes, I decide to go to the ridge above Orcier. A short while later, my bet seems to pay off: I find a thermal almost half way to the ridge. It's not big, but I gain a bit of altitude. Another pilot comes in the thermal, and he's off to the side. After a while, the activity stops, and I follow my intended course to the ridge. There the thermals are very sporadic. On the far right, I see Alex very low along La Chapelle. He hasn't managed to gain any altitude and has decided to come back to the ridge. He's headed for the valley, that gives access to the road, so he might make it to the front, if the Venturi's not too strong. After a while, I see him go to the landing terrain, he made it.

I fly around for a while longer, taking this exercise as a practice, snap a few shots, and then head for the landing spot too. The conditions are a bit too unstable, we'll have another attempt later...

Technical data: Flight duration 0:25, Take-off altitude: 1330m, Maximum altitude reached: 1375m, Total climb during flight: 512m, Max rate of climb: +3.0m/s, Max descent rate: -3.8m/s, Landing altitude: 640m.